Electronic marketplaces, such as those accessible via the Internet, may include a catalog of items or products available for purchase. These items may be offered as the basis for commerce (e.g., sale or trade). In one example, customers may utilize a web browser to visit a merchant's website, select an item for purchase from the catalog, and engage in a checkout process to finalize an order for the item. The merchant may operate a fulfillment network including various facilities in order to process such orders. For instance, the merchant may include a facility that prepares shipments of purchased items. A shipment carrier may acquire such shipments from the merchant and deliver the shipments to the respective purchasing customers.
The facilities operated by the merchant may include various fulfillment processes for fulfilling orders submitted by customers. These processes may operate on items to perform various tasks, such as preparing items for shipment. In some cases, some processes may be performed in a sequential fashion. For instance, a picking process that picks items out of inventory may need to be performed before a packing process that packs the items into a shipment. In some cases, poor performance of a process may cause an accumulation of items between processes. For example, poor performance by a packing process may cause an accumulation of picked items that need to be packed for shipping. Such processing variabilities may contribute to a facility's inability to reach its full processing capability.
While the system and method for process management in a materials handling facility is described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the system and method for process management in a materials handling facility is not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the system and method for process management in a materials handling facility to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the system and method for process management in a materials handling facility as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.